SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1065020
Justin Morgan: That dream season in review By Mark Kariya Photos by Get Some Photo After winning the SCORE Baja 1000’s overall motorcycle category in 2017, Justin Morgan stood at a career crossroads. He’d been a vital part of the winning team, yes, but he felt his future lay elsewhere. Where --- he wasn’t sure. As the calendar flipped to 2018, all he really knew was that he wanted to keep racing in Baja. With no substantial support lined up, he picked the SCORE San Felipe 250 as his goal race, as it was his favorite of the series and would do the least damage to his checkbook. But as the race drew near, he struck a last-minute deal with Mark Samuels, who rode on the second-place team but was a three-time SCORE Baja 1000 overall bike winner. Despite the late hour of their collaboration, they put together a modest program and ended up hitting all four rounds of the 2018 SCORE World Desert Championship season, though they hadn’t really expected to at the beginning. It ended up exceeding all expectations. Not only did they win in San Felipe, but they also won the 50th SCORE Baja 500, the Tijuana Desert Challenge, and the SCORE Baja 1000. They swept the series but not only that, at the Baja 1000 they were the fastest vehicle overall, even beating all Trophy Trucks and Class 1s in the process. That hadn’t happened since 2013. It’ll be hard to top or even equal that in 2019, but Morgan, Samuels and third man Justin Jones (who filled in at the 500 and 1000) will certainly have that as their goal. We caught up with Morgan a few weeks after that cherished SCORE Baja 1000 triumph as he prepared for the 2019 season. SCORE Journal: After winning the 50th-anniversary SCORE Baja 1000 in 2017 on Francisco Arredondo’s Bremen/Chris Haines team and winning the championship, explain how things happened after that. Justin Morgan: Mark and his partnership on the Ox Motorsports Honda team kind of dissolved and he was said to be starting a new team. He wanted to do the SCORE Baja 1000 only; that’s all I knew about his team. I wanted to do the SCORE San Felipe 250 because I’d never won that race before and I was still really motivated to get a win down there. I told Mark I was just going to solo it instead of doing the Sonora Rally. I just kept bugging him to ride with me and ride on my bike, which San Diego Powerhouse built. We had everything ready to go so I said, “Mark, come do a section for me and give me a break. I’m just going to solo it otherwise, but I think we could do really good if you raced with me.” He finally said okay because he was really tired after [making his debut at the Dakar Rally in January and needed a break. But he came down and we teamed up and ended up winning by a pretty substantial amount. It was crazy. I couldn’t believe it! It was awesome! With the points lead, we took that to the SCORE Baja 500 and we recruited Justin Jones to come up the coast for us because it was a long Baja 500 course. I did the start to race mile 240, then Mark took it over to the coast and Justin took it up the coast and gave it back to me at Ojos. We ended up winning that one. It was a pretty awesome race for us. At Tijuana, we figured we might as well do that one because we had a good points lead by then. Mark had me solo that race on his bike. I did good there in 2017 so I had the area pretty well memorized. I went there and they only added a few miles to the old course, really, so it was pretty nice. I ended up winning that one so the points lead was really good coming into the SCORE Baja 1000, which was kind of a stress-reliever knowing we could win the championship without winning the race. But on the other hand, if you don’t win the Baja 1000, it doesn’t really matter to a lot of the sponsors. They just want to win it. Basically, the SCORE Baja 1000 was just a long version of the SCORE Baja 500. We had the same riders and the same basic sections. We were extremely motivated coming into the race. We set up all our own pits and had some really good help. Everything came together extremely well. We couldn’t ask for a better race. We kept a really good pace, probably slower than I did at the Baja 500—trying to keep the bike alive which usually isn’t an issue. I definitely could have ruined our chances of winning in my section because it started in the dark at 4:00 A.M.. But I got off to a nice smooth start. Then Mark just killed it. He hauled ass and pulled a really big lead on those guys. I got off the bike with a decent lead, comfortable and everything. Mark kept pulling ahead and Jones flew up the coast. We were way ahead of schedule from what we’d predicted, like when to put the lights on that evening and everything. I think we were 45 minutes ahead of schedule. It just kept building and building. The bike didn’t have one issue, and we didn’t have any issues. Beating the Trophy Trucks was something. I didn’t even think was possible at this point with the technology of the trucks. But it was a really strong, consistent race for us on a bike that we had barely ridden. It all just came together and ended up getting the overall. I couldn’t believe it. SJ: What section were you able to outrun the trucks? JM: I would say it was probably Mark’s section. It’s technical in there with a lot of silt. It was daytime for us and nighttime for the trucks there. I think in Mark’s section he just nailed it so well. I think that’s where we really spread out the gap and did well. The trucks have so much horsepower that’s wasted due to wheelspin out of corners. We have kind of an advantage over them. Obviously, my section in San Felipe had a lot of whoops, so the Trophy Trucks had the advantage. We started at 4:00 A.M. and they started at about 10:00 A.M.. So they were coming through that section at a nice time. I was just coming from dark to light; I know they were smoking us there. I think Mark’s section was the big turning point in the overall result. SJ: What was his section at the SCORE Baja 1000? JM: I rode the start to about race mile 280, 285, at the end of Matomi Wash. He got on the bike and rode a long speed zone down there to around Coco’s Corner. Then we did a main pit at the highway crossing at Highway 1 and Chapala [dry lake]. He took it pretty far north and he got off closer to race mile 600. We basically split it into thirds as we all rode about a little under 300 miles. Jones got on and we were ahead of schedule there and didn’t have to put the lights on for a really long time. He liked that. I got back on at Ojos and took it to the finish. I went fast into the finish, but I didn’t know it was going to come down to beating the first truck on time by 36 seconds! I’m glad I didn’t just cruise into the finish. SJ: Looking back to the pre-season, since you guys put your effort together pretty late, how difficult was it to get sponsors or any support? JM: It was definitely more difficult because it was such a last-minute deal. On my end, I honestly wasn’t really looking for too much sponsorship. I had the bike, I had the mechanic who did all the work for free as part of the package. Mark gave me some motor parts, so I didn’t really need much besides the entry fee and Steve Bourgeois at DP Racing paid for that, which was really a big help! So I had it all dialed in. It was a 320-mile San Felipe 250 and that’s a lot to take on by yourself down there. Mark brought on Monster Energy and all of his Slam Life Racing Honda team sponsors to help get us maybe a win bonus and stuff like that, and maybe some parts. Him coming onto the team was a very big help. On his end, he’s more of the guy who talks to sponsors and gets help from everybody more than I do. He’s better at that stuff than I am, but I’m sure it was a lot more difficult on that short of notice. SJ: Did you guys use the tried-and-true Honda CRF450X all year or did you try the CRF450RX? JM: Yeah, we rode the 450X. We actually had a different bike at every race. Usually, that’s not the case, but this time it worked out that way. They were all used ‘X’s besides the one that we did the SCORE Baja 1000 on. We started with a fresh bike for the race. The 250 bike was my AMA National Hare & hound bike from 2017. The SCORE Baja 500 bike was, I think, an old Baja 1000 bike. We had to do a last-minute change on the “500” bike since they announced pretty late in the game that it was going to be a night start and we didn’t have a bike that had a frame with a headlight mount welded on. So, we had to do a quick change and that’s kind of the reason we had a fresh bike for Tijuana. That bike was going to be the SCORE Baja 500 bike with just one race day on it. He had enough parts and everything so we built another “X” up for that. Kind of interesting, actually. What a way to send off that model, with an overall win and everything. In 2019 we’ll be on the new “X”. That’s really exciting. SJ: Preliminary plans for 2019? JM: I’m antsy; I want to know what I’m doing next year. I know we’ll do the SCORE World Desert Championship again, but I’m not sure what else. SJ: Has it sunk in yet that you as the Rider of Record are the new SCORE Pro Moto Unlimited and overall motorcycle champion? JM: (Laughs) Not really! It’s kind of something that I thought would never happen in a million years. I’ve been racing in Baja consistently since 2011. It’s really amazing how it all worked out and how stress-free it was this year. There were no issues. There were no personal issues between the riders. It couldn’t have gone any better. All the years of doing it on other teams and having issues paid off this year. You learn every little thing the hard way. It takes so many years to learn how to race Baja correctly. All the work has paid off and this year was a huge relief. Last year winning the championship on Arredondo’s team was cool, but to go four for four with Mark and Justin—that’s still the main thing; I couldn’t believe it! To top it off beating the SCORE Trophy Trucks at the Baja 1000 is amazing, really amazing! All the sacrifices I’ve made and all the money I’ve spent to race Baja over the years paid off and we did it! If we could do it again, that’d be awesome, but that’s not something that happens too often. I don’t expect it, but we’re going to do our best to try to replicate this year again. SJ: Speaking of the money necessary for racing, has winning the SCORE World Desert Championship changed that for you? JM: It definitely covers the costs. Basically, our deals are, if we win, we get a bonus. If we get second, we don’t get a bonus. That’s how our deals were set up as far as last year. I don’t know how 2019 is going to be. So for now, the win covers the costs, but that’s about it for me. We’re definitely not getting rich off of it because I’m still working full-time. Taking time off work, the gas money, hotels, or renting a house; we like to do that because it’s not too expensive but it all adds up. With this year being all kind of last-minute and Mark doing Dakar, it’s been a little more financially rough than you’d think, but it’s all good. It’s been awesome and worth every penny to come out the way we did. SJ: You mentioned earlier that it takes a long time to learn to race Baja correctly. What’s there to learn besides twisting the throttle and hanging on? JM: It’s definitely not just going fast! It’s hard to explain. Basically, you learn your limitations, you learn the terrain that you excel at, you learn where you like to be in Baja. For me, I’m not a huge fan of the Pacific coast sections, but Jones is. I just really like the rough desert sections. I enjoy it and I really like that desert near San Felipe. I like staying in San Felipe. I’ve learned that. I’ve raced every section and I’ve learned, that this is where I want to specialize and get really good. Over the years I’ve raced that section a lot. Mark has raced his section a few times. I’ve raced it only three times before but he’s got it dialed in. It takes years to get comfortable and by doing everything the wrong way, you eventually figure out the right way to do it. It just takes time. A desert rider coming in and trying to go as fast as they can make mistakes. I’m just getting to the point now where the riding is starting to make a difference. It used to be where I can ride as fast as I want but I’m going to get tired. Not knowing how much to pre-run a section, there are so many aspects to it. That’s what makes it so addicting, I think. It’s hard to put into words, but it’s a long, long road of trial and error. SJ: What’s the biggest mistake you see most newcomers make? JM: A lot of them crash during pre-running. I’ve seen that a lot. Just going out there and not really knowing what’s going on, and the first time going through a section, they come in hot and fall over. You don’t even think it’s going to be a hard crash, but anything over 40 miles an hour, you’re hitting the ground pretty hard! It’s difficult for your body to hold up when you crash like that. I’m definitely guilty of that. Also, they get really excited during the race. There’s no way to prepare for race day. It’s completely different than pre-running. Pre-running, you’re out there all week and it’s super mellow. Race day, the intensity and all the fans are everywhere. The first bikes come through with helicopters and you’ve got to adjust to adversity. If you hear your bike’s had an incident earlier on in the day and you’re sitting there at mile 300 waiting to get on and your bike’s 45 minutes behind schedule, you’ll feel like you want to make up all that time. It’s easy to ride over your head, get antsy, and try to force things. Or you get on and you’re barely leading and you’re cold. You get on the bike and you haven’t ridden yet that day and the guy that’s coming up behind you has been on the bike for 100 miles. He’s warmed up and riding really well. You’re cold and you crash sometimes and make bad decisions because you’re a little freaked out. It took me a few years, but I ended up finally getting to the point where I was physically leading the race overall and opening up the course, which is a lot different than being the third or fourth bike. Nobody knows you’re coming. You’re not thinking about what’s in front of you and it’s hard not to think about who’s behind you, who’s on the bike, what’s going on and it makes you ride over your head and make a mistake. That’s a whole other aspect: It takes some time to learn how to lead the race down there. SJ: Racing in Baja is different than other types of racing. Have the lessons you’ve learned racing in Baja helped you in other types of races and, conversely, has other racing better prepared you for Baja? JM: Racing in Baja teaches patience and quick reaction times, which are used a lot in AMA National Hare & Hounds. I haven’t won a hare & hound yet, but I’ve had some pretty good rides and I attribute a lot of that to racing in Baja. I remember one of the first Hare & Hounds that I did, the sections in Baja are a few hours long. They’re longer than a hundred miles which are usually the longest for a hare & hound. Physically, it’ll get you more conditioned and your brain more conditioned to pay attention for a long time. If you’re just racing motocross or endures and you go out to do a three-hour race, you have to pay attention the entire time. I think a Baja race helps a lot for dealing with mental fatigue. You learn a lot about riding in your comfort zone. All the days on the bike pre-running for two to eight hours a day sometimes for days on end, you can’t help but become a better motorcycle rider putting a lot of time on the bike. Race day is just a demonstration of how much effort you put in pre-running. Other types of racing taught me a little bit more about intensity and sprint speed. For example, at the Hare & Hounds you start cold at the bomb run starts. It’s crazy! You’ve got to get up to speed right then and racing those types of races, even the local desert races, hare scrambles, or anything like that, you kind of lack the explosiveness and intensity in Baja sometimes. It’s kind of like a marathon, so learning the sprint style, you can’t get that from just racing Baja. But it’s very beneficial in a Baja race to get going cold and haul ass. SJ